Day 58: Barcelona to Castelldefels

October 23, 2023

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Today was anticipated as a fairly short and easy ramble along the coast to what we thought was a small town, slightly inland. But first we were apprehensive about getting out of Barcelona. After all, we had taken the train in to avoid the trauma of dealing with the outskirts. As it happened it was easy to get out, and then very difficult to be out. Here is how it evolved:

Starting basically at our hotel, we were able to hop on protected bike lanes until very far (8 km?) out of town. What's more, as we cycled along we could spot one bakery or cafe or supermercado or fruit and vegetable store after another. All this renforced our impression of Barcelona as a cycling friendly place.

Although bicycles are well supported, scooters are much more numerous.

We think the Rambla might be down that way. Too bad we are leaving.

There were so many little places like this.

You could boost your energy with these fun flavours.

This chain was seen around a lot - good selection here.

As we got back out toward the train station, the character if the city around us began to change. We still had a bike lane, but now some high rise buildings began to appear. The thing about these though was that they were widely spaced and individually quite attractive.

The first sky scraper on starting to leave town.

OK, there was still a gaggle of the "good old stuff" around.

The multi story apartments are no longer art nouveau, but they are not horrible.

Yikes, so many scooters. Unlike most motorcycles, these are not so noisy. But we feel only the painted Vespas have any real class.

This tall hotel, the Renaissance, had a kind of garden theme.

Now, about 9 km out, things are getting grotty.

The 29 story Hyatt Regency here, with a UFO parked on top, is the last innovative building we saw.

We need to draw a line here ----------------------------------- because after this our ride (with some exceptions) went totally to hell. It corresponds to arriving adjacent to the university hospital. The GPS told us to turn onto the hospital grounds, and we did that, finding a bike way, and dodging all the health not conscious hospital staff smoking around the grounds.

We scouted around for the continuation of our bike track, but somehow got sucked onto the shoulder of a road was that destined to become a big road. We had no idea where any bike route had gone, until we did see someone cycling over yonder. But concrete barricades of absolutely airtight no gaps construction kept us from getting there. We carried on for a fair bit, going through an underpass and whatnot, hoping that we would find a way off. Finally it was clear that we were just heading for disaster, so we turned around and began to walk the bikes on the reasonably wide shoulder, back towards safety. This was working out, except that one bus driver stopped his giant vehicle to shout at us for being in the wrong place, and at a blind corner, just where I expected it, another bus driver cut the corner onto the shoulder. Yeah, but we knew he (or some other dope) would be there.

We really needed to jump the concrete barrier to reach that dirt track.

The Riu Llobregat is a small river that enters the sea near Barcelona. Here we have found the entrance to the bike way that runs beside it.

Looking a little more closely at the bike way sign, you can see the road spaghetti that was working to trap us in dangerous situations.

We went back through the underpass, this time on the safer side of the barricade.

And hooray, we have made it over the concrete barricade.

Not to say that our path is all that great!

Here, behind a gas station, was a secret path that could have taken us from the big road to wherever we are.

Apparently 142,000 other cyclists have found their way here this year, no problem?

Aha, Eurovelo 8, now surely our problems are over!

Ok, now we're talking, I crowed, the world's widest bike lane! But wise Dodie cautioned this was probably a flood bypass.

We backtracked, only to find our alternative route blocked. No matter, we found a third way.

We were now in the flood plain of the river, a fertile agricultural area.

I thought I would mention here a fact that will be well known to all cycling in Europe the last few years. The electric skate boards have come to be everywhere, especially going (in our view) too fast, on bike path. In some cities rental versions are piled up like snow drifts. In some town in Canada, I read, they were banned from cycle ways and from roads, making them de facto banned. We are ambivalent about them, since they are substitutes for cars (as well as bikes). I took this photo to illustrate the extent to which they now have official recognition out here.

The route now took us by the airport, and we were at first right in line with the landing runway. It was fun watching the planes flying in over our heads. When we were first married, we had no money to go away on a honeymoon. Never even considered it, really. But we did get a room at the airport hotel and enjoyed ourselves ordering room service sundaes, and watching the planes taking off and landing.

The airport guessed that people out here would be interested, and provided a viewing platform and some charts about the planes flying by.

We found a nice bench at which to eat our sandwiches. It was just by where the planes were marshalling for take off. We watched an Air Canada leave, turning west, without remorse or nostalgia. We are really happy cycling here, and in no hurry to return. And besides, we'll be flying Air France. But even though we are definitely not "stuck here on the ground, with no place to go", we are still nostalgic for Gordon Lightfoot, and his song from our youth, Early Morning Rain:

This big one, seen from our bench, is presumably heading for Singapore.

Now getting ready to swing between the airport and the sea, we came to a display all about the birds and insects we could expect to see. Not only wsas this interesting in itself, but the photography was stellar - so colourful, well posed, and clear.

Ooh, I thought, I can steal a little yellow bird for the blog!

We carried on, and arrived at the sea. It was very satisfyingly wavy. And man stopped to caution us not to go in.

This is where we could draw yet another line in this day, a big black one! EV 8 instructed us to head to the beach and to continue along it, more or less indefinitely. Ok, surely there must be a track along there, but perhaps not the best, maybe a little sandy? We scouted this way and that. Nope. Finally I walked (could not even push the bike) out to where EV 8 said to go. Well for one thing, it was a nude beach, with an official sign indicating no swim trunks. But for another, there was nothing but trackless beach sand. Nothing!

I walked back to Dodie to report my findings, and realized that I was limping. It was because of a bunch of goathead thorns in my socks. We haven't seen these evil things since Texas! We know what they can do, and carefully picked them off our tires as well as my socks.

As for EV8, I eagerly anticipated looking at the area on the big screen this evening. And oh, my, not only is there not a darn thing where the cycle way was supposed to be, but there are water barriers with no apparent crossings, for anyone who thought they would push through the sand! Look:

The red is as far as we got. You can still see the little tail of green path, that I walked to be sure there was really no way. The white roads nearby are all barricaded - they are part of the airport, whose runways are right there. The water barriers have no apparent crossings anyway.

There was nothing for it but to backtrack all the way to the beginning of the airport, and to circle around it the other way. We had to press the GPS into service to figure out a way to go, and we did benefit from cycle ways that surround the airport and from another one that Dodie later spotted.

We were now definitely off the beach and back over or into the spaghetti.

Castelldefels is definitely a workaday town.

Our Booking at our hotel named Flora Parc conjured images of flowers and parks, but no such thing. However, our room is huge and the wifi is fast, so that's good. At first they proposed to charge us 10 euros each to "park" the bikes in the garage, but I gave them a big argument, using my stock approach: "We have booked 90 other hotels this trip, and you are the first and only one to (insert name of transgression)". They reduced the price to 10 euros total and then to free, but anyway we figured out that the bikes would fit in the elevator, and so we put them in the room.

The not so floral, or park, view from our room. But it does have a balcony!

P.S. I have been looking at that beach crossing in Google Maps - map view and satellite view. The map is clearly a fantasy - from the satellite there is no path and no water crossing!

Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 2,911 km (1,808 miles)

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Andrea BrownI'm a Google Maps fan but I also find it wise to view routes on it with grand skepticism, and hotel listings as well. If the satellite shows a rice field instead of a hotel, and the hotel link shows teenagers posing as rappers or a kid holding a papaya, well then. I can't tell you how many of these I've edited to indicate they don't exist. I'm not sure if you can do the same for routes or roads, however.
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6 months ago

Kathleen ClassenWow. What a nightmare. We took the train out of Barcelona and are taking the train back in. It is now looking like a wise decision!
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6 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Andrea BrownIt really is frustrating to come up against one of those Google maps gotchas. It seems to take forever to find a real world workaround and if the weather is really bad, or the road you are on is dangerous, it can be hazardous.
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6 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Kathleen ClassenThere must be a way to cycle safely in and out of Barcelona, but we sure did not find it. You are wise to be using the train, and next time so will we.
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6 months ago

Keith ClassenBike touring is not for the feint of heart. If you are looking for some adventure it will eventually come your way. What a day for you!
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6 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Keith ClassenSitting at a bench now, 32 km beyond Castelldefels. Yesterday was a breeze compaed to cliff hugging no shoulder roads today.
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6 months ago

Carolyn van HoeveWhat a nightmare! I just had a look on Komoot to see if it could spit out something better and it immediately came up with a bicycle path called the B7:Bicivia 7 that took a more direct path to Castelldefels. It's so good know all these things for future planning!
It sounds as though your next entry may be worse though ... yikes
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6 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Carolyn van HoeveThe problem we find with all the route planning programs is that they never give you their criteria for choosing one route over another. If you like hills and off road rides, and so did the developer of the track all is good. Otherwise.......
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6 months ago

Carolyn van HoeveI know what you mean. In komoot it would be good if you could switch between road cycling and tour cycling when planning a route to avoid the komoot 'goat tracks' but still enjoy quiet paved paths.
We followed quite closely in your tracks on our tour in September through Lille, Arras, Peronne, Amiens and Beauvais! Planning for next year and looking with interest at your routing through Southern France and over the Pyrenees. We are also keen on the idea of going from Barcelona to Valence but you've had some hairy days. The cliff top ride following this entry sounded a little scary! Will look with interest to see where you end up storing your bikes.
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6 months ago